In recent years, a system wherein a company with know-how in optics design offers a lens design service to companies having no know-how in that field has been proposed (refer to Patent Document 1 below). The technique as disclosed in Patent Document 1includes connecting over a network a terminal equipment of a lens manufacturer (company having no know-how in optics design) to a terminal equipment located at a design data provider side (company with know-how in optics design) and, in case of an agreement relating to supply design data, in having the design data provider transmit the design data over the network.
With regard to services using such a system, the company involved in optics design typically charges the company receiving the lens design on the basis of an additional payment for the number of lenses manufactured using said design. According to the system disclosed in Patent Document 1 for instance, price is calculated on the basis of a number of distributions as counted by a dedicated counting unit adapted for counting the number of lens design data distributions.
Furthermore, a communication system for globular shape machining data for eyeglasses is described in Patent Document 2 (see below), wherein a communication equipment of a lens processor which processes lenses for eyeglasses is connected over a network by means of a communication equipment to an eyewear store. Such a communication system for globular shape machining data of eyeglasses requires a technique by which the data relating to the type of lenses, etc. are transmitted from the store communication equipment so as to be displayed and outputted on the communication equipment of the lens processor having received those data.
Patent Document 1: Jpn. unexamined patent publication No. 2005-202291
Patent Document 2: Jpn. unexamined patent publication No. 2002-174800
In previous systems, companies having received lens shape data specifying lens shape from an optics design service for lenses were able to illicitly manufacture lenses without paying the price thereof to the optics designer through repeated usage of the same lens shape data, whereas optics designers found it difficult to identify such an abuse. Therefore, the companies involved in optics design have been facing the issue of not being able to recover the profits they were supposed to gain.
Moreover, the possibility for lens processors to duplicate lens design data although they have paid only for the design fee for one lens made it disadvantageous in the prior art in that such lens processors were likely to repeatedly process lenses in an illegal manner. For instance, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 suffers from the disadvantage of data duplicated and outputted on a communication equipment being used by lens processors to manufacture multiple lenses therefrom.
The prior art is also at risk of allowing lens processors to repeatedly process lenses in an illegal manner, as the lens designers who supply lens design data are unable to identify such abuses.
The prior art is also found to be disadvantageous in that the lens design data usage status cannot be appropriately managed, thus leading to a risk to have lenses processed illicitly using said lens design data.